Mac Pro Late 2013 and Samsung 4k monitor problem

That sounds like you are having this issue as well. This is pretty disappointing to hear. For people who use multiple accounts with FileVault, want to boot camp or choose boot drives it makes it impossible.

People who who are having this issue need to contact Apple. It's really the only way to get them to support these displays properly.

Just to update everyone, I took my Mac Pro to the Genius Bar today. The Genius took a look at it, and ran some hardware tests, and everything came back fine. He also tried hooking up an Apple Thunderbolt Display, and another display with a VGA to display port adapter. Those worked fine. So, it looks like only these 4k monitors and the LG 34UM95 have the boot screen problem. He told me there's nothing else they can do, and according to internal documentation, engineering isn't even looking into the problem.

I'm not alone in this issue, as anyone who doesn't see the Apple boot splash when booting/rebooting is having this issue. For people like me who use FileVault, or want to use bootcamp/choose a boot drive cannot with these displays. Using another display, or using HDMI is not a solution to this issue, as these monitors should just work fine.

Never have I ever had an issue with a monitor on any other computer I've owned. This is extremely frustrating, and disappointing for such an expensive and "Pro" marketed system. And for engineering to do nothing about this issue is unacceptable, as in all honesty it appears to be a widespread issue. However, it also appears people don't contact Apple about this, and just live with it. Some can I suppose, but others like me really can't.

We need people who don't get the Apple boot splash with these monitors to call Apple and let them know about this issue, it's the only way to get engineering to fix this issue, and add support for more 4k displays.

I can confirm the same issue you are having. I have a Samsung U28D590D on my 6-core Mac Pro (late 2013) with D700's, I do not get the white boot screen, and sometimes I get flickering after the display has already been on and in the OS.

I checked the system info and it shows up as a television (scaled down one from full 4K):

When I had the display on HDMI (30Hz only), I WOULD NOT get the splash screen but I WOULD get the drive selection on startup holding down option, now on DP->miniDP cable I do not get either of the two. The screen also takes a long time to wake from sleep, sometimes 1 keystroke is not enough to completely wake it.

I also have developed a sound issues after wake on Yosemite, the sound from Line Out is VERY low, if I restart or sleep and wake again, it is fixed!

I am very frustrated as well, $5000+ machine to have these annoyances is not acceptable!

Those are all common problems with the Mac Pro. The black screen during boot seems to be a particular issue with 4K SST monitors like the Samsung and I've seen every one of the other problems you list with the Samsung as well. I can't blame this all on 4K since I've encountered some of these issues with regular 1920x1080 DVI monitors as well when I've hooked up dual monitor setups. I've been using the Samsung for about a week and it's the most stable I've used so far. I think that these are all due to AMD GPU driver problems.

The only 4k monitor which reliably works with 2013+ Mac Pros is the $3600 monitor they sell on the Apple Store...

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Well seminolefans, at least we got someone's attention... hopefully it is not just a forum mod deleting things.

I hope people were subscribed and got the email so they can still read it!

I got the emails, and saw the posts. Some interesting points were made seminolefans. The only way to get these issues heard though is to call AppleCare, and let them know about these issues. It's the only way to get engineering to hear us, and actually do something about this issue rather then doing nothing. If you call, let them know about this thread, as this is a widespread issue, and this thread shows that.

Again, anyone having this issue, please call AppleCare!

If you don't like being deceptively cajoled into buying a 4k monitor from Apple at 7 times the price of competing models, you're left with three choices: 1) keep calling AppleCare & get blown off, 2) Tweet Tim Cook and shame him into doing the right thing for loyal Mac Pro customers, and/or 3) contact a lawyer.

To be fair to Apple, these 4K SST monitors did not exist when the Mac Pro 2013 was introduced. I don't think Apple sees much money in adding features to a product that you already bought. It's not even adding a feature, since there is a working 4K solution already (but it's not these SST monitors). You drank the Kool-Aid so Apple doesn't need to do any more.

Whether Apple fixes this depends on what your customer satisfaction is worth to them or how many Mac Pro customers they are losing because of this problem. On the other hand, this might be incentive for existing owners to buy the next generation of Mac Pro - if Apple makes one. When they introduced the new 5K iMac, the keynote event mentioned/showed pictures of all the other Macs except the Mac Pro. Does that make it the redheaded stepchild or was the event not pro centered?

To fix this problem Apple would probably need to make some kind of EFI update either for the computer or the graphics cards. Maybe they have a reason for not making an update available. Someone might be able to figure out how to change the firmware of the graphics card to force booting into a resolution that works at startup if they can't figure out how to boot at full resolution.

I have 2x MacPro 6,1 and a Samsung U28D590

MacPro 6,1: 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5, AMD FirePro D300 2048 MB

MacPro 6,1: 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5, AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB

Running 10.9.5 on both MacPro, the D300 worked fine at all resolutions when using MDP-DP cable

System profile correctly showed 3840x2160@60Hz

The D700 did not - and had lots of tearing and distortion down the right side of the screen using the same MDP-DP cable

(System profile correctly showed 3840x2160@60Hz)

(HDMI cable worked ok at 30Hx for both too...)

However:

After updating to Yosemite 10.10.1 both systems worked fine with no distortion at all resolutions at 60Hz using a MDP-DP cable.

I used an external Thunderbolt drives to test systems before committing to update - so I updated a 10.9.5 external Thunderbolt drive to 10.10.1

The Boot ROM Version of the MacPro with D300 has been updated from MP61.0116.B04 to MP61.0116.B07 but nothing else seems to have changed

Using the 10.10.1 Thunderbolt drive, the MacPro with the D300 worked fine as before.

Then connecting the 10.10.1 Thunderbolt drive to the MacPro with the D700 it also worked fine - without any other updates...

So without any firmware updates, it seems that Yosemite has fixed the issue with both of my MacPro.

(not tried a MacPro with a D500 - so cannot comment there)

Shame about the design of Yosemite OS - don't like the new looks...

S

So you're saying that with a DP-MDP 1.2 cable and Yosemite - the monitor and OS function normally?

I'm using HDMI now, because the cable didn't arrive yet, and the screen is pretty, but laggy I assume due to the 30Hz.

Yes - Yosemite seemed to fixed the issue on the MacPro with the the D700 card running at 3840x2160@60Hz

The D300 card worked fine at 3840x2160@60Hz in 10.9 and 10.10

Cables I use are:

1m Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort 1.2 Adapter Cable MDP2DPMM1M

and

CDLMDP-103 - 3m Display Port 1.1 Cable D-Port(m) to Mini-D-Port(M)

Slightly related:

We also have requirements for 6x 1920x1080 DVI outputs

For this we use the following ACTIVE MDP-DVI cable

2m Mini Displayport To Dvi Active Adapter Converter Cable (1920x1080 / 1920x1200) MDP2DVIMM3BS

This is contrary to apple's advice about the total number of DVI outputs possible…!!..

Mac Pro (Late 2013): Using multiple displays - Apple Support

…they only mention passive adaptors - not the active!

S

after putting some money aside, I finally made the move to invest in a 4K Display by EIZO and I have the same issue with the weird artifacts on the right side of my screen.

running on a laggy HDMI connection at the moment which is not a longterm solution because I earn my money in creating animations and 30Hz will not do.

I did not update to 10.10 and would like to find a confirmation if this solves the problem and to run the monitor on 3840x2160@60Hz at the same time?!

if not ... what other solutions would you guys suggest (with a BIG thanks in advance!)?

my setup:

EIZO Flexscan EV3237 4K monitor using a "clicktronic" DisplayPort to MiniDisplayPort adapter cable.

nMP (late 2013 - MacPro6,1 - AMD FirePro D700)

OS X 10.9.5 (13F34)

No guarantees on any of this - I can only report my own findings...

I used an external Thunderbolt drive with 10.10.1 to test my MacPro 6,1 systems before committing to updating it 10.9.5

I used SuperDuper to disk image and clone the MacPro internal HD on to an external Thunderbolt HD, then updated the external Thunderbolt HD to Yosemite.

Might be worth you trying to install 10.10.1 on an external Thunderbolt drive to test first...

It solved my problems with the Samsung U28D590 on the MacPro with D700

Shame about the design of Yosemite OS - don't like the new looks...

S

You used both cables? Or do you mean that either can be used? What native resolution are you running the monitor at?